You might remember way, way back in the day when we looked at free BlackBerry software. Recently, someone in the comments suggested that we do a follow-up. That’s all the prompting it took. In the meantime, I’ve upgraded from the 8703 to the 8830. And, of course, the application library has multiplied, as it will continue to do.
But before we dig into the new list, let’s go over the still-free apps on the old list, bullet point style.
- Google Maps. Still one of the top map apps. When asked about new features, the Google reps at WES said “I can’t comment about that” enough to make it sound promising.
- Beyond 411. Why pay for directory assistance? This ties in with GPS, too.
- BBScreenStream. Capture demo videos from your BlackBerry. Make sure to read our review of BBScreenStream.
- BBScreenShooter. Image capture software. We reviewed BBScreenShooter, too.
- Stock Viewer. Does what it says. Track your investments for free.
- JabpLite BlackBerry Personal Money Manager. You have to love the intuitive software titles.
- MobiPocket Reader. I’m a book nerd, so I love this app. Still awesome, still free.
- Viigo RSS Reader. The very best. It came in super handy at WES.
In with the new
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s take a look at a new crop of BlackBerry apps. Only two criteria apply here: It’s gotta be good, and it’s gotta be free. As you’ll notice, if you let us know about your own free BlackBerry applications in the comments, we just might mention them in a future edition.
Yahoo! Go
We talked a lot about Go when it was hitting 2.0. You can read Cooper’s Geek Review, or my overview-ish take on the portal. It provides a ton of tools you can use to make your BlackBerry experience even better. And now that they’re introducing oneSearch with voice, it’s only going to get better.
Handmark Pocket Express
So this is a bit like Yahoo! Go. It’s an all-in-one portal, giving you free access to the basic list of information: News, sports, weather, business, and more. Plus, it has a number of premium services, like a virtual assistant, which you can add on for a fee. They also have a games portal, also a premium feature. But the basic portal, which again is free, is top-notch.
Twitterberry
What? You thought we’d run a free BB apps article and not include Rae’s favorite? They even included some of her recommendations in their newest release.
gWhiz
I feel a bit nerdy adding this here, but these are two absolutely brilliant applications. The first is gGlash, a trivia flashcard program. You can download pre-made trivia questions, or create your own for personalized studying. The other is gCalc, which converts your BlackBerry into a university level graphing calculator. So, in essence, that would save you something like $80. Of course, fewer keys means it’ll be a bit tougher to navigate. But for $80, you can surely figure it out.
Auto Lock and Soft Reset
Both of these apps are marketed right at me. I always forget to lock my BB. And, of course, that leads to phantom calls. Not cool. Auto Lock does what the name implies. It locks your BB once your backlight fades out. If you’re not down with that, there’s a delay feature as well, which lets you put it on a timer.
Soft Reset is a perfect solution for those who don’t like taking their battery out. For instance, I have the OtterBox case, and it’s a pain to take off all those layers. Soft Reset will perform the same functions without having to take apart the case.
Tellme
We’ll go over this in a bit more depth soon enough. This is another portal of sorts, using voice to navigate through various options. You can say a business name and get info on it, or get the latest on traffic, weather, and more. It uses GPS to give you targeted results. And if your BB doesn’t have GPS, you can say your location and it will give you similar results.
GridMagic CE
There are a ton of document editors out there. Some are free, some cost. The downside to the free ones is that they aren’t too hot. GridMagic CE, though, delivers the goods for spreadsheets. It offers most of Excel’s functions, for an infinitely lower price. And yes, it’s compatible with Excel, too.
WorldMate Live
We covered a similar service in our last BlackBerry apps installment, Skip Go. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be operational any more. No worries, though. WorldMate Live is a stupendous travel assistant for your BlackBerry. The basic, free version includes information on your flight, hotel, meeting, and transportation itinerary. This info can be handled by WorldMate just by forwarding confirmation emails. It can cull the data itself. The Gold version, which costs $99.99 per year, gives you real-time travel alerts, including alternatives to canceled and delayed flights.
xPlayer
I have to admit, I like FlipSide a bit better. But xPlayer is free. It’s got all the basic functions, and the interface is a little more intuitive than the current BlackBerry media program. That will all change with OS 4.5, I’m sure.
Make sure to leave your favorite free BlackBerry applications in the comments, so we have plenty to work with in the third edition.
95 comments… read them below or add one
A soft reset can be performed without a separate app: ALT+SHIFT+DEL.
I use the free app Live Search by MSN. The maps aren’t as pretty as Google’s, and there’s no “my location” feature, but it has a great “search nearby” feature that’s super handy. I use this app interchangeable with Google Maps.
Don’t forget the Facebook app.
I also like xPlayer, and FlipSide, but they both lack a couple of features I feel necessary to a media player. One such feature is the ability to fast-forward and rewind. I LOVE listening to old time radio programs, and being able to move forward or back during a show is of great convenience. I also listen to podcasts, and the need there to be able to fast-forward and rewind is also essential in my book.
I would also like more control over the order in which the files play. Perhaps I didn’t try very hard with this feature, but I do like to be able to browse the directory where the actual files reside, and chose there what I want to listen to.
Thanks for the list! I am going to go try a few of these out right now!
The Facebook app won’t be included in this list until they fix a lot of the issues with it. The premise is great, but they still haven’t fixed the issue with the “is” status and it is pretty buggy lately, sending me wall posts today that were written six months ago as if they were new. When RIM actually takes the time to update and troubleshoot the app, only then might it make the best apps list. :)
I have found a few more free and good apps. For navigation I use Nav4All (http://www.nav4all.com). It is free till at least 2010, so the company says. It has many features and will work with internal and external (BT) GPS. It has turn by turn voice directions in 101 voices and 56 languages. It covers several continents and countries. To navigate the stars, I use Starry Night (http://www.space.com/nightsky/blackberry.html). You either enter your position or it can use your GPS location. You can choose which direction to view the sky. To monitor IP traffic and usage on my BB, I use MiniMonitor (http://www.ehnert.net/MiniMoni/index.html). When I need to translate words or phrases, I use BBTran (http://www.bbtran.com). It can do 20 languages and more than 50 translation directions. You can choose from several machine translators. BlackBerry (mobile.blackberry.com) just release a free wallet application for private information such as credit card numbers, accounts, etc. The number of apps for the BlackBerry is growing fast and we are see more advanced and polished ones. Hope these help others as they have helped me.
TellMe crashes my Blackberry Curve 8310 every time it tries to access the GPS, and says ‘Connection Lost’ ever time I try to say something to search for. Literally and 100% worthless. This is a bit unbelievable for Microsoft-owned company.
Thanks for including gWhiz in your review!
Along with updates to gCalc and gFlash+, we recently released gRef an application that provides you fast mobile access to your personalized reference library. gRef is great for computer commands, recipes, language references, etc. You can select from one of the gWhiz reference guides or easily create your own with Google Documents.
You can download gCalc, gFlash+, and gRef from m.gwhizmobile.com/downloads
Questions and feedback are welcome: info@gWhizMobile.com
Thanks again!
Soft reset is alt, right shift, del
gWhiz is awesome. gCalc really works just like a graphing calculator !!! I only wish there was a good free instant messaging program out there for AIM and other apps.
David,
They just released AIM for Blackberry on Verizon.
Thanks Joe, r u sure because I have a BB Curve 8330 for Verizon and I can’t dl it for anything, please help ! Thanx !
Just get over to getjar.com I have too many blackberry apps to. List . I use ebuddy for messaging it has aim, yahoo,etc. There’s kmt2 love that app for video and ringtones, opera mini is nice too there is freerange for rss feeds or plusmo and of course viigo is great.
I found a GREAT HTML reader and BEZ/Personal mail box seperator. Nothing to do but download and it works great! See smiley’s, shortens HTML lines to be easy and readable… Take a look at this.
http://www.getempower.com
YahooGo! Is great for the functions that it offers and does it all faster then could be done online. And it is nice because it is all in one. However I doid notice that it slowed my 8810 to the point that I deleted the app. And my phone is back to its normal operating speed. As a note it was the only app that I added to the 8810.
myspace just added an application for the blackberry.
Google Sync is another handy application. I use it to sync the Google Calendar with my Blackberry Bold calendar. I also have the Google Desktop Sync that provides a sync between Google Calendar and my Outlook. An excellent app that keeps your appointments in sync, no matter whether you add them on your blackberry, google calendar or in Outlook. A must have for business personnel.
BlackBerry Master Control Program
The best instant messenger for blackberry, I must say,is BeejiveIm. It is the best! You can use it for Aol instant messenger, msn,and others. It’s $19.99 for a single license, which allows you to only use for one blackberry. So if your blackberry gets messed up, you won’tbe able to transfer the license key to another phone. That’s why there’s the multiple license for 29.99.It’s a bit expensive, but it is so worth it! I love it!
You can download it at http://www.beejive.com
Oh, by the way, there is a 30-day free trial :)
I cant get over how awesome that TellMe app is. It is just incredible!!! it is lightning fast, and gives you the information you need. Works great on my BOLD.
Thanks!
I have alltel. I have a blackberry 8330. I can’t view anything java or flashplayer can someone help
The Google Map DL doesn’t work. Has the URL changed? I had it on my BB and somehow lost the GPS functionality. Am trying to reload it unless there is a better mapping software.
Help please.
It would be great we could have some kind of files explorer as Moto Q has, I would like to know what is in my Micro sd memory card.
Judd, it works now. Thanks for pointing out the broken link.
I agree with clark the tell me app works awesome btw I have a BB curve 8330 and I have sprint again it works awesome XD thanks joe for all ur helps keep it up!!! :D
auto lock works great. thanks for haveing this app here
Avvenu says its been discontinued…
@NeMeSiS Thanks for the heads up – Avvenu has been removed from the list as it is no longer free for BlackBerry users.
@Ron – I suggest you contact the developer of the Autolock application. His name is Alan Penner and can be emailed here: alan (AT)geekandproud.net
After using Autolock (free download) I decided I did not want to use it. I tried to uninstall it. Followed normal procedures and got “uninstall will completed on reboot”. When I rebooted the app was still there. I can disable it but I can’t uninstall it. I don’t like that at all. I want to uninstall Autlock but can’t. I go to the application list and it is not listed. Is is listed under Options>Autolock, but no uninstall. HELP!!!!
Hey guys, another free app I’ve really enjoyed using is MaraTick it’s a list application and I keep my grocery list on there it allows u to check and uncheck items as u go. I don’t know how to add the link for the install, bu thought it was worth mentioning
Okay so maybe I’m dumb but I’m new to having a BlackBerry…I have the Storm and don’t know which version of the finance manager from the first list to download. There are 3 options at the bottom of the page…help!!
Ivangi… i downloaded the MARA TICK app but just cant figured out how to load … any help would be greatly appreciated….. email at
dtremnd4sxs@aol.com
I’m looking for something similar to “berry blocker” is there anything like that, that is free?
How do you install .jad apps from a SD card ?
From what I understand, Max, you’ll need Aerize card loader.
So I really dislike brick breaker and I’m looking for some different free games/apps… Any suggestions? (I tend to like tetris/puzzle games) Thanks!
when you uninstall an application it will be taken off of your “file list”. to remove the icon from your screen, take the battery out.
i’ve had my blackberry for only one week. the 3 best things that i’ve figured out…
1. when in doubt, take the battery out.
2. the blackberry button is your friend:)
3. http://www.crackberry.com (that’s how i found out how to get rid of the icon)
webmessenger is free and will allow you to do muitiple IM clients in one application
I found an awesome free app for the blackberry. It is called Mara Tick. It is a list app. You can make lists with headings. And sublists. I am not sure how to explain it. Kisst that it is awesome. Especially if you make lots of lists for. Stuff like I do. You can google Mara Tick and it will take. You to it. I love and think you will too.
slacker mobile (www.slacker.com), free radio (listening to it now). Has a good selection of genres. Works great on my curve 8330, but you have to have an SD card in with 500mb free space for it to work. I’m not sure about the space requirement, but I can attest that it will not function without a card in. Runs in the background so you can run other programs (like messaging) while listening to tunes… Rock On!
I have a BlackBerry storm from verizon ad I tried to download slacker radio
After it was downloaded I couldn’t open it. I think
It has something to do with Verizon being capitalist
Pigs. Someone let me know
This should work on Verizon – many people are using it on their Storm currently. Is your Berry hooked up through a BES (through your company)? if so, they may be blocking access.
Slacker works for me on Verizon 8330 with BIS.
I suggest Opera Mini for sure if you have to log into a site. Sometimes the BB browser just can’t handle Javascript well enough. Also good for image browsing.
Excellent file explorer app, BBFileScout (http://bb.emacf1.com/bbfilescout.html). This app lets you add file/app associations and will launch the specified app when opening files. A must have…
I agree slacker is awesome. I can’t believe it’s free.
And you only need an SD card to cache a station to listen while you’re not connected. It will work without one though
I couldn’t get autolock to work one my bold. I downloaded it twice but it didn’t work either time. I had no problem unintalling it though.
Just downloaded the free Pandora.com app. Great for listening to music, you can design your own radio stations, very easy to use just like the regular pandora website. Similar to slacker, it can run in the background while you use other applications. Great sound quality on my curve 8330!
Hello I just got the blackberry 8350i… Can some one please tell me how i can watch you tube videos?
I’m new the fun and exciting bb world and am having a bit of trouble .. I have for the past week been trying to my very impatient mother video recordings of her new grandson but everytime I send the video she unable to download it .. She said the error message says
Something like cannot dl from a mobile device .. I also tried sending it to my sister and she has the same problem .. Is there something wrong on my end? Thanx a BUNCH :0)
Oh! .. Btw I have a storm :0)
Hey BB’rz, I installed the Mobipocket Reader. The ebookstore fails to load, I follow the ‘help’ instructions but, still no joy. Plz HELP!
I tried going to xPlayer to download it and test it out, but it nows charges 19.95 for the download (same as flipside). I don’t know if the media player has changed recently because I just bought my BB 3 weeks ago, but its not all that terrible. I’d have to say its better than paying $20 anyways, but if theres a better option with more features (FF, REW….I could come up w/ some more) that’s also free I’d like to try it
Does anyone know where I can download mara tick on my curve?? Had it on my pearl & had to switch phones & now when I try to download the app it says error not found. What happened!?! I loved that app!!
Stockviewer may be free but with 30 minute delay on quotes, you can use Yahoo just as easily. Anything that claims to track stock prices is useless if quotes are delayed by more than 5 minutes.
Of course, I’ve always loved Pandora–even before I got my blackberry, but that I can take it with me ANYwhere now is amazing. Plus! I just figured out I can use my iPod jack in my car, plug it into the headphone jack and Viola! have Pandora streaming through my car radio. :D
Awesome.
Also, I currently use Remember The Milk for my tasks, but there is not yet an actual app for this; is there anything besides got-2 ($8.99) as a better list management system?
Thanks!
Flycast is also a good free streaming music app. you can look things up by city, not sure how many are out there. It is great when I go out of town…I just plug my blackberry into my aux jackin the car and I can stream my hometown station anywhere I go that has service. I have a 4g card in my phone but I don’t think it needs one to run, it even allows you to stream through wifi if you are in a free location and don’t want to run it off your own network.
I have a BBCurve 8330 – I cant get actual GPS to work. GMaps puts this blue dot on the map and says its “within 3800 km of my location” and is worthless?? I tried the Nav4All app, but still says no GPS coupled??? My phone itself gives option of 911GPS or locationGPS – what gives? this is driving me crazy.
Thank you
Michael(mgfetcher@gmail.com)
Michael, if you have it through Verizon they’ve crippled the GPS chip so it will not work with GMaps.
How can I get my ringtones volume higher when the phone ring.loud in alarm setting but very low when phone actually rings
Since verizon has crippled the GPS chip is the any map sight we can go to to get turn by turn
@Michalyne – to get your turn by turn directions you will have to use TeleNav unfortunately
Where can you get free apps for Myspace and Facebook. I have the BB Bold (AT&T)
@dj Myspace is available here: http://www.myspace.com/blackberry and Facebook is here: http://www.facebook.com/BlackBerry
hmm, i have my blackberry through verizon and google maps works fine on mine. ive had no problems with the gps
A few cool apps:
Amaze GPS is a very cool free GPS navigation software, with voice instructions in several languages and large coverage.
Not a real app, but a fantastic site is moodio.fm . It will convert streaming audio into Blackberry compatible streaming (at least for my 8900) and will reduce bitrate for those stations that require fast connections. Works beautifully with unsupported WMA streams.
This site has an app that is awesome for free internet radio on your BB.
I have searched for a lot of different apps, and my blackberry doesn’t seem to have any of them! No pandora, twitterberry, tiny tweeter, ka-glom, or mobipocket reader. Is there something wrong with my phone?
@Ness you will have to download all of those applications to your phone. They do not come loaded by default.
Whenever we write about an application on BBGeeks we always post a link to the software if it is publicly available.
Go back and read those posts again and use the links to get the software on your BlackBerry.
I have the BBCurve and GoogleMaps works fine on mine. I love it. I could get lost in a box.
I think fletcher wants to see the exact location. Gmaps dosnt have the “exact” location.
This is over a year old now, how about version 3, or better yet a worst free apps list.
I am looking for a good to do list application for my BB curve. I would like one similar to the Palm To Do list.
Any ideas?
thanks
nazaar shadir
Cannot emphasize how great the Pandora app is for BB curve. Use at work (which bans streaming music on work network; bypass by using BB and hooking up to desktop speakers), use in car with auxiliary jack. Not enough mention of it here. Pandora music internet radio is available on BB and works great and coordinates with your regular Pandora account.
I’ve tried & tried to get Pandora to work on my Blackberry Curve 8320 from T-mobile.
http://www.rimarkable.com/8-free-blackberry-apps-you-may-not-have-heard-of
has links for the following free BB apps:
MaraTick (absolutely LUV this one)
WebMessenger
QSMS (can’t get it to work on Curve 8330)
MaxMem
ShrinkIt
Peek-A-Boo
BBFileScout6
KeePassBB
BBFileScout6 should be BBFileScout. I have trouble with typos on occassion.
The Poynt.app is prob the best maping app I’ve used so far..it tells you restaurants near you*,people*, businesses,movies near you*,theaters near you, and depending on where you set your location you can map out that area.also, you can make it show you how to get to the restaurants or businesses…it works great on my 8330. Just go to bb app world
*it gives you a few options as to how you want to look them up
I have a simple question and I feel dumb for asking but I have a bb curve and I want to attach files to my emails. How do I do that? Also how do I save files into a folder? Everytime I create a folder I try to put my emails into it with file attachments when I just want to put files into it. Sorry for sounding stupid but I am bb illiterate..anyone that can answer, please do
I absolutely love UberTwitter. It is the best free twitter app for BB and even out does a lot of paid twitter apps, I’ve tried many!
I also love Poynt, a directory of yellow pages, white pages, movies and restaurants that uses your gps to locate places closest to you and even gives directions on how to get there from where you are currently located.
And if you’re not using the Google BB app, you should
I’m tryin to find a app so I can have t.v on my bb curv 8900 can u help me with this.
iheart radio, has a lot of radio stations from across the country!
Check out this page u could down load free wallpapers meet people download videos and whole songs by various authors in various genres.www.mocospace.com I have a blackberry curve 8330 and it works fine for me.
How can I use Word and excel sheets on BB Curve 8310?? Please help..
@Altamash you need to have a minimum of OS 4.5 on your device and you will need the following software
http://store.bbgeeks.com/product.asp?id=40092&n=Documents-To-Go-Premium-Edition-2.0
I just found and downloaded bbnotepad. It is a great text editor that works just like notepad on windows. the download site is http://www.krzysztow.com/BBNotePad/.
Some of you people fail miserably at using grammar correctly. Don’t expect an answer if we can’t understand your dumbass question.
Are there any free apps or cheap apps that will let me open and edit word and excel files? I don’t need the power point function. I am self employed so this would be extremely helpful but its hard to justify me spending $50 on it like most apps that do this. Thank you
@oldglory Documents to go is your only option here. If you upgrade your OS to a minimum of 4.5 you will have access to the standard package of Documents To Go.
great unlocked blackberry. easy to use, smaller than the first, wifi is great, 3G is nice. pretty happy with it. great for my business too. got my last one on gsmauthority.com and it’s pretty sweet. gonna get another for the kid. 2 thumbs up
Hw can I get micrsoft excel and a pdf reader for my bb 8310?
@kinoshi I would check out Beam Suite from the BBGeeks Store:
http://store.bbgeeks.com/product.asp?deviceid=675&id=35359
One app I find appealing is the Bolt Browser. Of course the BB comes with its own browser but to me it sucks. With this browser you can have up to 3 tabs open at one time and as soon as you start it up it comes to the favourites page. 5ure you can browse Facebook and other sites of the sort with shortcut apps added to your phone, but with this browser, unlike those shortcuts with the pre-installed browser, allows you to view those important sites via pc view, and you don’t have to worry about misdsing anything. Also, if you play some of the games on Facebook you can actually play them through this browser as well unlike the pre-installed browser. Some people say that Opera Mini is better but I beg to differ considering you try to have 3 tabs open it crashes or locks the phone up. Needledd to say I hate Opera Mini as well as the BB browser.
If you want any more information on this browser without downloading it and trying it out yourself (which I STRONGLY advuise) you can email me the questions @ gangstachris @ msn dot com. (Not sure if this blog allows emails so that’s why I put it that way even though this message may not be seen by others :p)
ok downloaded gRef but cant get any of the apps…how do you do it…be very specific…i have gotten to the list, but no option comes up to download it..HELP
totally frustrated
@Terry it looks like gRef is only available now in the Pro version. You can purchase it here: http://store.bbgeeks.com/product.asp?id=25668
I am not sure what the problem is with your download but the best contact to discuss it will be the developers themselves.
Need 2 download
hi i hav bbbold9780 i couldnot install a alx theam file to my divice pls help